Microsoft denies media reports on cooperation with US intelligence

July 12, 2013, 10:17 UTC+3The company also recalled that on June 15 Microsoft has disclosed the requests received from U.S. intelligence

Share

1 pages in this article

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

LOS ANGELES, July 11. /ITAR-TASS reporter Alexandra Urusova/. Microsoft has denied on Thursday a statement by the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ that the company has closely cooperated with the U.S. secret services. This reportedly included helping the National Security Agency /NSA/ to evade their encryption codes and providing direct access to various products, including Skype and Outlook. The information was provided to media by Edward Snowden.

“We have clear principles that guide us in the acceptance of governmental requirements on providing information about our customers” told the corporation to ITAR-TASS. “We provide such information only in response to court rulings, and firstly our experts examine the verdicts for compliance with all legal standards and requirements, and only then we decide whether to provide information to law enforcement authorities or not.”

The company also recalled that on June 15 Microsoft has disclosed the requests received from U.S. intelligence. In the second half of 2012, it has received about 6-7 thousands of such requests that were connected with 31-32 thousand people.

“We have intentionally published data on the number of such requests by the security services that previously were not subject to disclosure, so that it became clear that Microsoft does not provide to government agencies direct access to the codes of SkyDrive, Outlook, Skype or other products” stressed the spokesperson of the company.